Litter bag

ABSTRACT

A normally flat litter bag for use in the home, office, hospital, automobile or similar conveyance made of throwaway paper. A pressure sensitive adhesive strip is affixed across the rear wall and is covered with a peelable nonsticky tape which when stripped off, permits the openable mouth of the bag to be accessibly suspended. A sleeved bendably malleable wire bridges and is attached to the interior of the front wall and has extensible and retractable free end portions which can be suitably angled and bent to span the customary folding creases of the bag&#39;&#39;s sidewalls in a manner to spread and retain the mouth of the bag in an open condition.

United States Patent Primary ExaminerDavid M. Bockenek Att0rneysClarence A. OBrien and Harvey B. Jacobson ABSTRACT: A normally flat litter bag for use in the home, office, hospital, automobile or similar conveyance made of throwaway paper. A pressure sensitive adhesive strip is afiixed across the rear wall and is covered with a peelable nonsticky tape which when stripped off, permits the openable mouth of the bag to be accessibly suspended. A sleeved bendably malleable wire bridges and is attached to the interior of the front wall and has extensible and retractable free end portions which can be suitably angled and bent to span the customary folding creases of the bags sidewalls in a manner to spread and retain the mouth of the bag in an open condition.

LITTER BAG This invention relates to disposable paper or equivalent litter bags which are designed and constructed for convenient use wherever necessary or desired and pertains, more particularly, to a bag which is normally flat and whose front and backwalls are provided with self-contained coacting means which permit a rear wall to be attached to and hung from a stationary support surface and permits the customarily creased sidewalls to be expanded and retentively spread in a manner to maintain the mouth of the bag in an unobstructedly open condition.

Briefly the bag is preferably but not necessarily made of paper and, like known collapsible litter bags, is normally flat and comprises opposed front and rear walls, a bottom wall and folding centrally creased sidewalls. Pressure sensitive adhesive media extends across the lip portion of the rear wall and by peeling off a protective covering label the bag can be adhesively attached to and suspendedfrom a selected support surface for use. A strand of bendably malleable wire of prescribed length is sheathed in a suitable hemlike paper sleeve and by fastening the median portion only of the sleeve across the interior surface of the front wall of the bag and leaving the respective end portions free, these end portions can be manually angled and bent out in a manner to stay put and distend the foldable sidewalls of the bag, whereby to spread and retain the mouth of the bag open.

A litter bag constructed as herein disclosed lends itself to acceptable and practical use in many areas such as for example, the home, in ones office wherever necessary or desired, in a hospital room for a patients convenience, within the confines of an automobile, a boat or similar conveyance and in other feasible ways too numerous to list here. To the ends desired, the bag itself is of ordinary or conventional construction. Novel bendable wire means is mounted on the interior of the front wall of the bag and pressure sensitive adhesive strip means is placed across the outer surface of the rear wall of the bag to suspend the same from a stationary support surface with the mouth of the bag held in an expanded or open condition when bendable free end portions of the wire are properly positioned against the creased sidewalls to satisfactorily achieve the open mouth condition desired.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective showing a fragmentary por' tion of relatively stationary support means and showing, what is more significant, a disposable litter bag constructed in accordance with the invention and illustrating how it is suspended for ready and convenient use.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the bag shown at the left inFIG.

centralized creases I6 which are in the folded state when the bag is flat as shown in FIG. 4 and are spread, that is, straightened out when the bag is in use as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in particular.

The bag attaching and suspending means is such that it can be attached to and hung from a support surface such as the stationary support surface 18 (FIGS. 1 to 3 inclusive), While this attaching and positioning means could be of some other construction-than that shown, it preferably comprises a narrow strip of pressure sensitive adhesive media 20 which extends across the exterior surface of the lip of the rear wall 8 as shown in the drawings. Broadly this adhesive media is shielded by covering means which is denoted, generally stated, by the numeral 22 in FIG. 5. More specifically this means comprises a nonsticky label 24 which is of a width and size to cover the adhesive strip. As a matter of fact, the label or cover can be of a suitable peelable material and is usually of a length that one end portion extends, as best shown in FIG. 4, to provide a pulltab 26. It should be pointed out here that instead of using a single covering strip it would be within the purview of the inventive concept to use two covering strips which would be equal in length to the adhesive strip and, as suggested in dotted lines as at 28 in FIG. 5. Stated otherwise, this cover means can be of a single strip as shown or separate detachable strips as just briefly described. In either event the label or strip means can be stripped off to expose the adhesive media whereby the latter can then be applied to the support surface to suspend the bag in the manner illustrated.

The means for spreading and holding the mouth of the bag in opened condition is novel and comprises a strand or single piece of manually bendable malleable wire denoted at 30 in FIG. 3. This wire is of a length that the main or median portion 32 can span the interior of the front wall 10. The free end portions are denoted at 34 and are such in length that when extended into a position parallel with each other and at right angles to the portion 32 they then bridge the creases of the sidewalls 14 and thus stabilize the sidewalls and function as applicable and removable stays. This self-contained bag spreading and opening means includes not only the wire but also a paper or equivalent hemlike sleeve which is denoted FIG. 3 is an enlarged detailed section taken approximately on the plane of the section line 3-3 of FIG. I and with a por' tion of the wire-sheathing sleeve broken away and appearing in section.

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the bag in its folded but readyto-use condition.

And FIG. 5 is a fragmentary perspective .view showing the upper end portion of the bag with one end portion of the covering label peeled to the right and readied to be removed to expose the strip of adhesive media.

It is evident from the views of the drawing that insofar as the bag itself is concerned it is a conventional openable and closable bag which is normally ilat, that is before it is put to use (FIG. 4). The bag is denoted by the numeral 6 and is characterized by a rear wall 8, an opposed front wall 10, a bottom wall 12 and opposed sidewalls 14 interconnecting the bottom and front and rear walls. These sidewalls are provided with generally by the numeral 36. The sleeve sheathes the wire and is characterized by a main central portion 38 which is suitably attached to the interior surface of the front wall 10, and end portions 40 which function in the manner shown, when in use, in FIGS. 1 to 3, inclusive. When the bag is folded these end portions 34 and 40 are retracted and assume an out-of-theway state, as shown in FIG. 4.

By attaching the bag and then opening the mouth and bending the wire ends 34 out the creased sidewalls 14 are braced and the mouth of the bag is suitably held in an open condition.

Experimental use of a bag having the self-contained features herein shown and described has shown that the thus constructed bag is an innovation and well serves the many purposes for which it has been aptly and satisfactorily used. Accordingly, a more extended description is deemed to be unnecessary.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to" the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.

What I claimas new is as follows:

I. A self-supporting, self-contained expansible and contractable litter bag comprising front, back, bottom, and side bag-forming walls, the respective sidewalls being centrally longitudinally creased and normally collapsed to provide a compactly flat but spreadable bag, a strip of pressure sensitive material applied to and extending across an exterior upper edge portion of the backwall of the bag and normally covered by a manually peelable bodily detachable tape, and a length of mo'uthopening and bag holding wire, said wire being bendably malleable, the major median portion of said wire completely bridging the interior of said front wall and having free bendable end portions which are adapted to spread and retain the mouth of the bag in an unobstructedly open condition, said length of wire being retentively encased in a sheet material hemlike sleeve, said sleeve being commensurate in length with said length of wire, that portion of the sleeve which spans the interior of said front wall being permanently attached to the interior surface of said front wall and enclosing and operatively mounting the median portion of said wire on said interior surface, the respective end portions of said wire and said sleeve being free of positive connection with the interior surfaces of said sidewalls and being manually bendable toward and from said sidewalls, the freely bendable end portions of said wire and cncasing free end portions of said sleeve being commensurate in length with each other and ofa length greater than the width of said sidewalls and being adapted to bridge the aforementioned longitudinal creases in a manner to prevent closing of the bag until desired.

2. A self-supporting, self-contained expansiblc and contractable litter bag comprising front, back, bottom and sidewalls, the respective sidewalls each being centrally and longitudinally creased from end to end to permit said bag to be spread from a normally flat state to a fully open ready-to-use state, a sheet material hemlike sleeve of a length equal to the width of the front wall and equal to slightly more than halfthe width of the respective sidewalls, the median portion of said sleeve spanning the interior surface of said front wall and being permanently attached to said interior surface, the end portions of said sleeve being free of positive connection with said sidewalls, a length of bag-mouth-opening and retaining wire, said wire being bendably malleable, being of a length commensurate with the length of said sleeve and being encased in said sleeve, said wire having free bendable end portions, said end portions and the coacting free end portions of said sleeve being capable of assuming folded positions against the median portion of said sleeve when the bag is flat and adapted to assume sidewall contacting and bridging positions when positioned by hand in a manner to extend across the sidewalls and points beyond the central longitudinally creased portions in a manner to spread and maintain the mouth of the bag in an unobstructedly open condition, and means carried by an upper exterior surface portion of the backwall for mounting the open ready-to-use bag on a relatively stationary support surface.

3. The litter bag defined in and according to claim 2 and wherein said means comprises a strip of pressure sensitive material which is applied to and extends across an exterior upper edge portion of said backwall and which is normally covered by a manually peelable and bodily removable protective tape. 

1. A self-supporting, self-contained expansible and contractable litter bag comprising front, back, bottom, and side bag-forming walls, the respective sidewalls being centrally longitudinally creased and normally collapsed to provide a compactly flat but spreadable bag, a strip of pressure sensitive material applied to and extending across an exterior upper edge portion of the backwall of the bag and normally covered by a manually peelable bodily detachable tape, and a length of mouth-opening and bag holding wire, said wire being bendably malleable, the major median portion of said wire completely bridging the interior of said front wall and having free bendable end portions which are adapted to spread and retain the mouth of the bag in an unobstructedly open condition, said length of wire being retentively encased in a sheet material hemlike sleeve, said sleeve being commensurate in length with said length of wire, that portion of the sleeve which spans the interior of said front wall being permanently attached to the interior surface of said front wall and enclosing and operatively mounting the median portion of said wire on said interior surface, the respective end portions of said wire and said sleeve being free of positive connection with the interior surfaces of said sidewalls and being manually bendable toward and from said sidewalls, the freely bendable end portions of said wire and encasing free end portions of said sleeve being commensurate in length with each other and of a length greater than the width of said sidewalls and being adapted to bridge the aforementioned longitudinal creases in a manner to prevent closing of the bag until desired.
 2. A self-supporting, self-contained expansible and contractable litter bag comprising front, back, bottom and sidewalls, the respective sidewalls each being centrally and longitudinally creased from end to end to permit said bag to be spread from a normally flat state to a fully open ready-to-use state, a sheet material hemlike sleeve of a length equal to the width of the front wall and equal to slightly more than half the width of the respective sidewalls, the median portion of said sleeve spanning the interior surface of said front wall and being permanently attached to said interior surface, the end portions of said sleeve being free of positive connection with said sidewalls, a length of bag-mouth-opening and retaining wire, said wire being bendably malleable, being of a length commensurate with the length of said sleeve and being encased in said sleeve, said wire having free bendable end portions, said end portions and the coacting free end portions of said sleeve being capable of assuming folded positions against the median portion of said sleeve when the bag is flat and adapted to assume sidewall contacting and bridging positions when positioned by hand in a manner to extend across the sidewalls and points beyond the central longitudinally creased portions in a manner to spread and maintain the mouth of the bag in an unobstructedly open condition, and means carried by an upper exterior surface portion of the backwall for mounting the open ready-to-use bag on a relatively stationary support surfacE.
 3. The litter bag defined in and according to claim 2 and wherein said means comprises a strip of pressure sensitive material which is applied to and extends across an exterior upper edge portion of said backwall and which is normally covered by a manually peelable and bodily removable protective tape. 